The key facts

  • Trump stated in a CBS News interview that countries defended by the US must reimburse all expenses of the war with Iran
  • He called Israel a country that 'would not have existed' without him personally and the US
  • The amount, the list of countries, and the payment mechanism were not named; earlier expenses were estimated at 47 billion dollars

Demand for compensation from allies

US President Donald Trump stated that the countries Washington defended during the war with Iran are obliged to fully compensate the American side for the military expenses incurred. He said this in an interview with CBS News: 'The countries we defended must reimburse us for all the expenses we incurred during the war, because without us they simply would not exist.' This is reported by Life.ru.

Statement on the US role in Israel's security

Trump paid special attention to Israel, attributing its existence to the United States and to himself personally: 'Without us there would be no Israel. Israel would not exist if not for Donald Trump.' At the same time, he did not specify which countries besides Israel should compensate the expenses, did not name the amount of the expected payments, or the mechanism for receiving them.

Context: from demands on those who 'did not help' to demands on those defended

This is not the first such demand: earlier, as Life.ru notes, Trump already demanded that the US be reimbursed for the costs of the war with Iran, addressing states that did not help Washington in the conflict. Now the matter concerns compensation from countries that enjoyed American protection — that is, the addressee of the demand has changed. A benchmark for the scale of the expenses is provided by an estimate published on October 28: according to calculations by the US Central Command, submitted to Congress, the military campaign against Iran cost 47 billion dollars. The publication does not report any decisions or responses to Trump's new demand.